Thursday, July 12, 2007

terra

Chris Mooney was on DemocracyNow today discussing various science-y stuff ("Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming").

Excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: What about the politics of carbon credits and carbon counting for companies, for industry?

CHRIS MOONEY: It’s a new thing. And, you know, there’s a lot of questions that have been raised about carbon offsets and, you know, what are they actually paying for and is this really offsetting emissions?

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what they are.

CHRIS MOONEY: Well, I use, for example, carbon offsets from a company called TerraPass, so it offsets my emissions when I do air travel. And there’s a variety of different sort of programs. When Al Gore says we should do something in our personal life, this is the kind of thing that he’s talking about. And it’s kind of a new economy, and there’s a lot of uncertainties, I think, about many aspects of it. But what it’s doing is it’s showing that carbon dioxide emissions have an economic implication and that they shouldn’t be ignored. When you’re engaging in some kind of economic activity that burns fossil fuel, you need to be taking that into account. It has consequences.

I have some travel coming up in the next few months, and I really wasn't aware (in a practical sense) of how to offset. Mooney mentioned/endorsed Terrapass (his recommendation suffices for me) so I looked into it. As it happens, my flight cost me about $1500, and the offset will cost me less than $50. I couldn't wait to give them the $50.

In related news, the usually terrific ABC - the oz equivalent of the beeb - has found itself in the middle of an almighty storm. They are broadcasting 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' at this very moment...